Thanks. I was responding to the idea that hospitals in general don't have flowers because of allergies, not the psych ward specifically. The psych wards I visit to see my clients vary greatly in ambiance. None are great, but not all are as stark as the one in the article.
Frankly the cruelest thing I think some of them do is not let people smoke. They poison people with their meds (my long term psych clients often have permanent awful side effects from the drugs) and so forth and admit they can't cure most of them, but a cigarette is going to be bad for the client's health.